Ky Sahra
Ky Sahra was a startlingly beautiful young Nyueng Bao woman who, with the rest of her people, was trapped in Dejagore during the infamous siege of that city. Despite the resentful objections of most of her people, she fell in love with a northern soldier, Murgen, and became his wife. Their son, Tobo, was raised within the culture of the Black Company and extensively trained in the arts of wizardry. Sahra – along with the rest of the Nyueng Bao and like individuals such as Willow Swan and Blade – was never formally made a member of the Company. But, after much of the Company's leadership became Captured for 15 years, she was an indispensable ally of the group. During the Kiaulune wars, she provided invaluable support for Sleepy, the Company's Annalist, during which Sahra performed the functions typically fulfilled by the lieutenant. The Nyueng Bao place the personal name last, so Sahra's family name is Ky. ''Bleak Seasons'' During the protracted Siege of Dejagore, Sahra's first husband Sam Danh Qu died of fever, and she was widowed with two young children. She is introduced to Murgen by her grandparents Ky Dam (the Speaker of the Nyueng Bao) and the priestess Hong Tray. The grandparents have foreseen Sahra's union with Murgen, and they work to promote the relationship against the deep distrust of foreigners typical of most other Nyueng Bao. Sahra's children and her grandparents are among the many Nyueng Bao murdered by Taglians working for Mogaba during the siege. Murgen and Sahra's brother Thai Dei round her up with the surviving family and hustle them away from the murderous carnage outside. She Is the Darkness In order to get her away from her husband, Sahra's own family members, led by Mother Gota and Uncle Doj, faked the murder of Sahra by the Stranglers. In reality, Doj simply drugged Sahra. When she awakened, she was told the opposite lie: that Murgen had been slain by the cultists, and with nothing to hold her to the Company, she had been removed. Pregnant with a foreigner's child, and forsaken by her own mother and most of her race, she was forced to reside like an exile at the Vinh Gao Ghang Temple of Ghanghesha. Eventually Sahra learned that Murgen was still alive. She felt his presence when he was wandering outside of his body, and she finally received Murgen's handwritten letter from Banh Do Trang, a loyal messenger. She was furious at the treatment she had received, and soon conceived of a plot to return to Murgen. She would give birth to her son Tobo at the Temple. Water Sleeps Years later, after the Captured were interred beneath the glittering plain, Sahra remained with the Black Company throughout the disastrous defeats of the Kiaulune wars at the hands of Mogaba, the Great General of the Protectorate. Finally, she and Sleepy became co-leaders of the underground outfit by default. They worked tirelessly to discover a way to free the Captured, and also to subvert the designs of Soulcatcher in Taglios. Sahra dealt with the stresses of living in hiding very effectively. Sleepy admired her as follows: To gain access to the Palace of Taglios, she took on the fictional persona of "Minh Subredil", feigning to be the half-breed daughter of a priest of the Gunni cult of Khusa and a Nyueng Bao whore. In this disguise, she worked among the day laborers of the cleaning staff of Jaul Barundandi for years. She sometimes brought along "Sawa", ostensibly her dead husband's retarded sister... actually Sleepy in disguise. They spied on the Radisha Drah and Protectorate officials whenever possible. But primarily, they were researching a way to gain access to the plain to rescue the Captured. Sahra and Sleepy smuggled pages of the first books of the Annals out of the Palace for painstaking translation. During this time she tried to stifle the attempts of One-Eye and Goblin to apprentice Tobo in the art of magic, viewing it as overly dangerous. She accompanied the group onto the plain, and her allies finally liberated her husband Murgen and her brother Thai Dei from the cave of the ancients beneath the fortress with no name. She then settled with them all in the Abode of Ravens in the strange new world called Hsien. Soldiers Live Upon the release of the Captured, Sahra relinquished much of her authority within the Company, as the driving force behind her actions had always been to re-unite with her husband. However, the many years apart had changed them both significantly, and Ky Sahra had aged a great deal putting strain upon their relationship. In addition, she increasingly bickered with her son, Tobo, who saw her as overprotective and getting in the way of his ambitions. Ky Sahra disappeared and was presumed killed during the Battle at the Shadowlander cemetery. Her body was never recovered despite Tobo's extensive search with the support of his Unknown Shadows. Her ghost, or perhaps simply Tobo's own conscience, haunted her son when he undertook his private campaign of revenge against Protectorate officers. Category:Characters Category:Nyueng Bao Category:Allies of the Black Company